26th
Performing Parades by Efterklang & The Danish National Chamber Orchestra
October 19th 2009 Rumraket will release the live album and concert film Performing Parades by Efterklang & The Danish National Chamber Orchestra (outside of Denmark this release will be available via The Leaf Label).
Efterklang will be touring with their 7-piece live-band most of the fall to celebrate the release and on one special occasion Efterklang will team up with the classical orchestra Britten Sinfonia for a Performing Parades concert in Barbican Hall in London. This is October 28th (click for tickets). Too see the entire list of concerts please refer to Efterklang.net/home/concerts.
Performing Parades will be available as a limited edition deluxe gatefold CD+DVD and LP+DVD package. A sweepingly majestic affair, the performance takes Efterklang’s sumptuous, otherworldly pop songs to new heights of heart-bursting joy and wonder.
Shortly after the release of Efterklangs second album Parades in October 2007, Karl Bjerre Skibsted from DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) approached Efterklang with a proposal to work with The Danish National Chamber Orchestra. Efterklang leapt at the opportunity. From the off, the intention was to unite the two groups as a single musical unit: 50 musicians on stage in full Efterklang regalia. Composer and arranger Karsten Fundal was invited to write orchestral arrangements for the songs, and after ten months of preparation, the first performance took place on September 26 2008 at DRs brand new (and on this occasion sold out) Koncerthuset in Copenhagen
The original Parades album recording involved more than 30 guest musicians, including a string quartet, a brass quintet and three separate choirs. On Performing Parades the music is brought to life in new arrangements in a way that is both dazzling and profoundly moving. Or, as Mojo described the performance in their live review: “uplifting, celebratory and gloriously ridiculous, like an alternate national anthem for a new northern utopia of untrammelled happiness.”
The live recording is packaged with an intimate 55-minute concert film directed by Benjamin Hesselholdt. The DVD also includes a behind the scenes documentary (with English and Danish subtitles) made by Ralf Christensen and Anders Bøtter, as well as all six video clips made for songs from Parades, including lead single ‘Mirador’, which now has racked up over a million (1,000,000!) views on Youtube. An acoustic performance of the same song is also featured on the DVD.
The artwork for the project is by the acclaimed design duo Hvass&Hannibal, who also produced the artwork for Under Giant Trees and Parades, as well as the costumes, production and stage design for the Copenhagen show.
